Conditions at Limpopo old age home highlight plight of the elderly

Whose responsibility is it to ensure that NGOs who care for populations like the elderly meet the standards set out in the law? 

The Older Persons Act, which is the overarching piece of legislation, mandates the Department of Social Development to have the oversight role. The department must also conduct inspections and ensure that the residential facilities are compliant with the required standards as indicated in the regulations. The oversight role sits with the department because the department is the custodian of all its citizens, especially those who are in need of care and protection.

Why don’t people report elder abuse? 

There are a number of reasons: 

• Firstly, lack of faith in the system. People feel that their reporting will have no impact.
• Secondly, they could also be fearful of the repercussions. If you report, then you must go through the process, and sometimes people don’t want to put themselves at risk if they report things. That fear is a real fear.
• The third aspect is people are so caught up in their own busyness that they don’t have time to go through the process. For someone who is working and trying to put food on their table, the priority is “I need to do the things that are important to me at this point in time”. People get so caught up in the busyness that they don’t take the time to pause and reflect that this issue is a community issue. It’s not an individual issue.
• Finally, perhaps people don’t know that they can report. Perhaps there’s a lack of awareness that there is a law that protects older people, that the abuse of older persons is a crime. And that there are provisions to hold people accountable if they are not acting within the parameters of the law.

Are there any estimates of how many unregistered old age homes are operating in the country? 

No, and that is part of the problem. The data around the unregistered homes are not available. We’ve been finding more and more smaller homes mushrooming as the need becomes greater. People are living longer, which is a wonderful thing. But as people are living longer, they need to be in a protected environment.

So you’ll find that there are more and more of the smaller homes that are mushrooming, where people have taken a large home and just converted it to accommodate 4 or 5 older persons. And this is another growing concern, because how do we monitor this and how do we support people to provide the kind of services that are needed for older people. The fact that it’s mushrooming means that there is a need for it. But we must be able to ensure that in providing for this need, you’re not exposing older people to further anxiety and further abuse. 

Is the demand higher in rural areas than in urban areas?

This requires further research. I think that rural areas and urban areas have different sets of challenges.

In rural areas there’s a struggle for access to services. And everything is far apart.
So trying to get the services to all is far more difficult and that is a real need and we have to think creatively around how we meet that need. 

Urban areas have their own set of issues to contend with, from overcrowding to inadequate housing to failing infrastructure. There appears to be more crime and safety issues within an urban setting as well.

There hasn’t been sufficient research that can tell us that the need in urban areas is more than the need in rural areas or vice versa. Each circumstance has its own set of challenges and we need to be able to have a comprehensive response based on where the people are.

In terms of the reports that we get through the helpline, there isn’t a higher percentage of people that are coming from residential care facilities.

The reports of abuse that we’re getting are from the community.

Having said that though, let’s put that into context in terms of the numbers of people that live in residential facilities. The numbers from the Department of Social Development, for example, indicate that about 18,000 people live in residential facilities. Our population of older persons in South Africa is 5.6 million.

Based on these statistics, it is expected that you’re going to get a lot more reports from the community. 

While the number of older persons in residential facilities only includes the homes the department has stats on, and we don’t know about the unregistered facilities, but the majority of older persons are living in the community.  And the reports of abuse coming from the community is reflective of that.

What needs to happen to ensure that laws and policies are implemented by NGOs providing residential care? 

All stakeholders must come together to protect older people.

Communities need to report these issues and support the systems that exist for older persons. This can be done in different ways including volunteering, providing financial support, or serving on the boards of these non-profit organisations. Communities must get involved. 

Organisations must adhere to good governance and comply with the laws. So if you’re an organisation providing support and care, principles around integrity and building trust  are non-negotiable.

Government’s role is not just about monitoring. Government also has a role to play in creating a space for co-designing responsive solutions for the sector.  The government can play a lead role in creating the platform for all these stakeholders to come together. – Health-e News